North-West Telecom’s share of the corporate client market stood at 20.7% in the first six months of 2009, which is 2% more than in the same period in 2008. This metric exceeds 50% in certain areas of the North-West Federal District (the Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Leningrad and Murmansk regions).
The revenue which North-West Telecom generated from the provision of telecom services to corporate clients in the first half of 2009 increased by 13.6% and amounted to Rub 3.8 bln (29.4% of the company’s revenue mix).
During the first six months of 2009 large corporate raised their average monthly consumption of NWT’s services by Rub 900,000. The clients which signed up for new options and services of NWT included divisions of Sberbank of Russia in the North-West Federal District, divisions of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, UVD, VTB Bank of the North West, and others. The share of revenue generated by the company from large corporate clients traditionally accounts for 34% of the company’s total revenue mix from legal entities.
“The projected decline in the consumption of telecommunications amid the global economic downturn affected mainly the representatives of mid-sized and small business. Large corporate clients in the first six months of 2009 did not decrease, but even increased their consumption of telecommunications solutions and the services provided by our company. As a result, we managed to offset to a certain extent the decline in revenue from other clients which are legal entities”, according to the deputy general director and commercial director of North-West Telecom, Oleg Popov.
All in all, NWT has a subscriber base of over 110,000 clients which are legal entities, of which about 670 large corporate clients classifiable as high-end clients, and, as a rule, having regional enterprises and organizations with representation offices in five or more regions where NWT has a footprint. The company’s largest corporate clients includes such names as the RF Pension Fund, UFNS, UVD, banks and lending institutions, such as Sberbank of Russia, VTB, Baltic Bank, Eastern Express Bank, major research and design institutes, as well as institutes of higher education, including the A.I. Hertzen Saint Petersburg Center State Unitary Enterprise, and military and industrial enterprises, Rosmorport,, etc.
The main services used by large clients include datacom intranets with guaranteed transmission speed, reliability conditions and information protection (including VPN), traditional telephony, including by way of office switching facilities, and broadband Internet access.
Great attention is currently being devoted to operations in the segment of large clients at North-West Telecom. The most highly qualified managers in each regional branch have been assigned to work on a permanent basis with such clients. Individual solutions and a personalized approach to implementing projects are provided for this category of clients.
According to the deputy general director and commercial director of North-West Telecom, Oleg Popov, the multi-service telecom network set up at NWT on the basis of fiber-optic lines using IP/MPLS technology make it possible to implement large-scale projects for providing services to corporate clients in the entire territory of the North-West Federal District, including the rollout of VPN. A personalized approach in servicing clients and bonuses which depend on the amount of services used enable our company to offer its clients the most advantageous level of services on the most convenient terms”.
One of the strategic areas of operations at North-West Telecom in recent years has been work with small and mid-sized corporate clients. Especially for this purpose, uniform packaged solutions have been worked out and are available in all areas of the North-West Federal District on the basis of AlliancePRO (a product-oriented website - www.aliance-pro.ru), make it possible not only to purchase advantageous services, but also to keep track of their monthly telecom expenses, which is quite important for business on any level (see press release dated April 3, 2009). The company regularly carries out marketing campaigns aimed at attracting this category of clients and acquire equipment on an interest-free (see press release dated May 28, 2009).
